RAWALPINDI: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Rawalpindi chapter has issued the schedule for registration of electoral groups and panels for the upcoming local government (LG) elections in Punjab.

The ECP requested independents, who wanted to contest the local government elections in the province, to form their electoral groups and panels as no independent candidate would be allowed to contest the election.

According to the schedule, registration application will be submitted to the Election Commission from March 24 to 28th. Scrutiny of the applications will be held on April 1 while the Election Commission officers will issue certificates to groups and panels on April 6.

Independent candidates barred from contesting LG polls

For Rawalpindi Metropolitan Corporation (RMC), applications will be submitted to the office of the Rawalpindi Election Commission-I while those aspiring for the district council, Rawalpindi Election Commission-II will receive their applications. Assistant commissioners of seven tehsils of Rawalpindi will register the electoral groups and panels in their respective areas.

Rawalpindi Election Commissioner Roy Sultan Bhatty said under section 47 (5) of the Punjab Local Government Ordinance 2021, only political parties or electoral panels and groups would be able to participate in the local government elections.

“No independent candidate will be allowed to participate in the elections under the new law,” he said.

Mr Bhatty said this system was introduced for the first time in the province and most of the people were unaware about it.

“Under the new law, those aspirants who did not want to contest the polls from the platform of any political party should form their own panels. The registration of these electoral groups with the commission is necessary,” he added.

The election commissioner said for registration of electoral groups and panels, the ECP had deployed nine senior officers.

“In-time preparation of forming groups will save them from the hassle at the nick of time when the Election Commission will begin registering the electoral groups on specific forms,” he added.

The ECP has already issued a schedule for demarcation of village and neighbourhood councils.

By March 19, the zoning committee will prepare the final list while the final delimitation of the neighbourhood and village councils will be published on March 22, 2022.

According toinitial Election Commission notification, there will be 122 neighbourhood councils in urban areas of Rawalpindi district and 106 village councils in rural areas.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2022